About Just Think

I write because I am curious. When I am trying to figure something out, I start with the research. But then it’s only writing it down that I can see whether or not I understand it. If I don’t, I go back to the drawing board.

Information seems ubiquitous. On any issue, we are bombarded with explanations and easy answers. It makes it seem easy to understand what’s going on – but it’s actually harder than ever.

When you want understand something, don’t trust the easy answers – not even from the experts, and certainly not the AI. Just Think.

I also love analyzing the numbers. We’ve become a data-driven innumerate society: we are obsessed with data, and yet statistics are mis-used and mis-represented so often that they cause more confusion than clarity. So I hunt for data and try to make some sense of them: their quality, what they can tell us and what they cannot.

I have an instinctive skepticism of accepted wisdom, consensus views, and the “right” answers. This newsletter is for people who want to step away from groupthink and get an independent view. People who like to think for themselves.

I write about economics and innovation, because that’s been my bread and butter for almost three decades; but also on big themes that have economic and technology dimensions, like climate change, pandemics, geopolitics.

I hope Just Think will help you think for yourself, that you will sometimes disagree with me and challenge me, so whatever the issue is, we can figure it out together.

About Me

I’m a published economist and TED speaker with a career spanning policy, finance, industry and technology.

I’m the former Chief Economist and Head of Business Innovation Strategy of GE; I served as a member of the Board of Advisors on Information Technology at Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

I published "The Economics of the Financial Crisis: Lessons and New Threats” with Palgrave MacMillan and am a two-times winner of the Rybczynski Prize for best paper in business economics, awarded by the Society of Business Economists in London. I’ve given a TED talk on innovation, published in the Harvard Business Review and other economics and finance publications and given lectures at Harvard Business School and Stanford.

After a decade in Silicon Valley, I live in – and love – Miami. I read voraciously and am now indulging my passion for literature by turning into a novelist.

Subscribe

Never miss an update. Every new edition of the newsletter goes directly to your inbox.